Sabbath Day, Lord's Day, or Sabbath Rest

In my earlier posts on the Sabbath, I emphasized that for Christians, the Sabbath is a Rest that we are to endeavor to attain 24/7/365. It isn't a day of the week. It isn't a once a week rest. It's a way of life. That's the short version, view the earlier blogs if you want to understand it better.

I recently viewed a video that argued that the Old Covenant Law regarding the Sabbath wasn't done away with by the New Covenant. Most Christians wouldn't argue with that per se, but most consider the Sabbath to be Sunday. That's what the video was refuting. One of the key points it stressed was that the early Christians still gathered on the Sabbath and that they did so until the time of the Catholic Church. It said that Constantine (apparently equating Constantine's making Christianity the state religion with Catholicism) made a law establishing Sunday as the day for the church to meet. From this, the maker of the video inferred that Christians must have still been meeting on the Sabbath or Constantine would not have had to make a law to change it. In logic, this is called an argument from silence - using what's not said to prove what therefore must be true.

I have a book called A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (ed. David Bercot). It takes various topics addressed in the writings of the earliest Christian documents after the New Testament, and quotes the early Christians themselves. I've been amazed at how much stuff the Catholic Church and/or Constantine get blamed for that actually began somewhat earlier than either existed. Here's some of what the early Christians had to say about the Sabbath.

Didache (writing between AD 80 & 140) - "But every Lord's Day, gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgivings after having confessed your transgressions, so that you sacrifice may be pure."

Ignatius (AD 105 - 200+ years before Constantine) - "no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day."

Aristides (AD 125) (speaking of the Jews) - "However, they, too, have erred from true knowledge. In their imagination, they think that it is God whom they serve. Actually, by their type of worship, they render their service to the angels and not to God. For example, they do this when they celebrate Sabbaths."

Justin Martyr, known as one of the first Christian apologists (AD 160, also writing to Jews) -  "And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read.... But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God... made the world. And Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead on that same day."   "Is there any other matter, my friends, in which we Christians are blamed, than this: that we do not live after the Law . . . and do not observe Sabbaths, as you do?"   "You now have need of a second circumcision, although you glory greatly in the flesh. The new law requires you to keep a perpetual Sabbath. However, you, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are godly.... There was no need of circumcision before Abraham. Nor was there need of the observance of Sabbaths, or of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses. Accordingly, there is no more need of them now."

The video quoted from the Old Testament that the Sabbath was a sign, saying that meant it was a sign that we are set apart from the world's way of doing things. Irenaeus (AD 180) had this take on it: "'You will observe My Sabbaths; for it will be a sign between Me and you for your generations.' These things, then were given for a sign.... The Sabbaths taught that we should continue day by day in God's service,. . . abstaining from all avarice and not acquiring or possessing treasures upon earth.... However, man was not justified by these things. Rather, they were given as a sign to the people. This fact is evident, for Abraham himself-without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths-'believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness.'"

There are numerous other references especially as you get into the late 100's and throughout the 200's. I found it interesting that Origen (c.248), said, "To the perfect Christian, who is ever serving his natural Lord-God the Word-in his thoughts, words, and deeds, all his days are the Lord's. So he is always keeping the Lord's Day." (i.e., even the "Lord's Day" should be 24/7/365.) Victorinus (c.280) said they fasted on Saturday so that "on the Lord's Day we may go forth to our bread with thanksgiving." He added, "and let this become a rigorous fast, lest we should appear to observe any Sabbath with the Jews. For concerning [their Sabbath], Christ himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, says by His prophets that 'His soul hates [Isaiah 1:13,14].' In His body He abolished the Sabbath [Eph.2:15, Col.2:14]."

Ironically, it was the Catholic church in it's early stages, documented in the "Apostolic Constitutions" that established the observance of both the Sabbath "on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation" and the Lord's day "on account of the resurrection." They even said, "Let the slaves work five days" so they could have off for both the Sabbath and the Lord's Day.

Now, let me make it clear, I'm not arguing for Sunday (Lord's Day) vs. Saturday (Sabbath). If you read my earlier blogs, you know that my point is we need to quit worrying about a day of the week - period. The Sabbath for the Christian is a ceasing from your own works, as God did from His, and resting in Him for both your salvation and your sanctification - for your getting into the kingdom and your going on as a follower of Christ Jesus. The Christian life is not about Law or works or days or festivals or events or programs or meetings or seminars or any other man-made contrivance to produce holiness or a Christian lifestyle. It is purely and simply about faith in God. That faith will affect how we live. It will result in action or "works" - not for the sake of working, just simply as a result of faithing. It will be an entering into the good works which God prepared before hand so that we should walk in them. It's not about having a list of good works that we should do, but about pressing into God Himself and having His enabling power/ability to walk in a manner worthy of Him.